Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Your best moment at the piano?

when i was a kid i won a competition and played in a performance recital.. Ronda alla Turca.

i was near the end. i played it perfectly... i was so proud of myself.. i had sped thru the passages with nary a blimp..

that was the moment.

then, i played the final chord.

I played at a state level competition in Florida while in high school. I played fine, but didn't win. Another student who played the same piece actually won. At our year end recital given at the U. of Miami (my teacher was a prof. there) that student's teacher (who is a very prominent teacher in Miami) came up to mine and said that she had no idea how her student had managed to win the competition over me. At that time I didn't have a lot of confidence. My training and work ethic up to about age 15 had been sporadic, but then I switched to the university prof., whose expectations were huge and whose reputation frankly scared me. I buckled down and worked harder than I ever had before. That single comment changed the way I looked at myself.


P.S. Apple, that's a great story. I'll bet lots of folks can empathize with that one.

In 1983, during an improvisation, which had started well, a theme suddenly came out of the blue and carried me along with it inexorably to its conclusion, as if I were a spectator, a conduit in the process, watching my hands acting independently, as if in one of those lucid dreams. At the end, my wife rushed into the room saying, "What the heck was that ? Have you got the tape recorder on ?"

Of course, since then, I have been able to generate the sensations at will most (but not all) of the time. However, that first experience, the intensity of it, was a revelation.

I don't bother taking any notice of praise, especially from musicians, and usually choose to forget it. However, after I had played for my father, shortly before he died, he said, "Bloody mystery to me how I ever had a son who could do that." I choose to remember that one.

When I was in high school I had a couple of moments. The first was during my sophmore year. I did a performance of French music for my French II class. Every piece I played, came out note perfect and flowed from my fingers even though I was no nervous my knees were glued under the keybed of the Baldwin grand! In the end, the local newspaper did a picture session and I made it on the front page of the local rag.

Another time was at the Chamber Music Weekend program at Phillips Andover. I was given some piano duet pieces by Diabelli to play. I had about 3 days to work on them because I received the music late even though I studied up at the academy. I cranked through the pieces and had them pretty comfortable under my fingers. I met the other pianist on Friday afternoon, and we practiced all day Saturday for a flawless performance on Sunday. I did so well that my teacher, who rarely complimented me on anything, came over after the performance and gave me a hug.

John

Best moment at the piano is sashaying into the office to pick up the paycheck...

Getting a compliment from my teacher, who's got quite the reputation for giving the brutal truth.

When I played pieces perfectly after practicing it for few month. When everybody appluse at the stage I felt greT!!

Auntie Lynn, you can be so funny at times... another treasured member on the forum.

This has been a fun thread to read, and yes, I'm coming in a bit late.

I'll never forget one of my best moments at the piano. Back at uni my piano teacher had a bit of a soirée at her home for some of her better students. Before devouring the massive amounts of food and drink, she talked a fair amount about the Schoenberg Piano Concerto.

Then without warning she put the score on the piano and asked us to try sight reading it. I was third in line. (Jason was shaking. )

But I've always been a good sight reader (trade off: I can't play at all well by ear) and somehow my fingers just landed on the right notes. No one else would have known one way or the other, but my piano teacher knew.

Okay, obviously I didn't play it up to speed -and I just played a few pages- but it certainly impressed a fellow student whom I'd always been "interested" in. It definitely changed the dynamics of the evening subsequently.

Per a recent thread (atonality/no sense of key), I've never since had any interest in that concerto, but it was still a fun moment. It took my mind off the struggles I was concurrently having with some Chopin.

My best moment was last March I played performed the Mozart Fantasia in D minor, it has never sounded as good since.

Matt

well i was playing the raindrops prelude (chopin) in a piano practice and it just felt so amazing...i was gonna move country and leave my piano teacher and this was about 2 weeks before i left...
i had like basically learnt the whole piece and was just playing it...

and when im alone...
some insane moments ive had:)

[Contents deleted by user.]

just a few weeks back, about 3-4 days before my 1st competition.

I played Haydn Sonata XVI/49 and Chopin Etude op.10 no.8 for a recital at church.
After church, everyone came up to me and told me what a fine performance it was. My aunt who knows my piano teacher said that she remembered watching my teacher perform this exact piece and that I did almost just as well and how it sounded excellent both technically and musically.
The day right after I played it for my teacher and played it perfectly except for 2 little mistakes but she praising me meant alot as she seldom will say anything like that unless my work is really wel done.

the other one, when I was 13, I played Fur Elise for some talent search at school. After I was done, there was a really loud, thundering applause and I could see a few teachers in tears at the back, I would say that people's respect increased for me after that as well. After moving here, I played it again for another start search held at Gateway theatre, the same thing happened and people were like just so, well they could'nt believe how well I could play when I wanted to.

Even just the other day, after my competition when I was placed 3rd, I felt a great sense of achievment and it meant alot to me as it was my 1st competition.

Started playing the piano at 6 when I accedentally listened to the Moonlight Sonata by Kempff. I was overwhelmed by it sound. Best time was when I finally played it myself. Fulfilment...